这位“狱中爸爸”有点不一样
本文中英文共约4000字
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Reading bedtime stories helped me survive prison
睡前故事伴我度过狱中时光
Lewis Hardy had just been released from prison and was getting a taxi home to see his two sons for the first time in nine months, when he got the call he dreaded.
接到那个令Lewis Hardy害怕的电话时，他刚从监狱获释。九个月来，他第一次坐出租车回家看他的两个儿子。
"What are you up to?" a familiar voice enquired.
“你在干啥？”一个熟悉的声音问他。
"I'm just in a taxi to see my boys."
“打车去看我的儿子们。”
"Don't worry about that," said his old friend. "See them tomorrow. Come to the pub with us lot."
“别担心那些，”他的老朋友们说，“明儿再去看他们。和大伙儿一起去酒吧聚聚。”
But Lewis knew exactly what to say.
但是Lewis知道该说什么。
"I ain't ever going to the pub with 'you lot' ever again. My kids are more important."
“我再也不跟你们这些家伙去酒吧了。我的孩子们更重要。”
Prisoners get a lot of time to think, Lewis says, and he'd figured out what was the right decision for him.
Lewis说，囚犯们有许多时间用来思考，他已经知道什么是正确的决定。
When he got home his sons, aged six and five, jumped up on him so fast he nearly fell over, he recalls.
他回忆道，当他回到家，他的两个儿子，一个五岁一个六岁，飞快地扑向他，差点把他放倒了。
He couldn't wait to do so many things with them after such a long time apart.
分别这么久，他有太多的事迫不及待地要与孩子们做了。
But top of the list was reading to them.
但最重要的是给儿子们读故事。
转变
It took a period in prison to remind Lewis of the joys of reading.
Lewis在狱中待了一阵子才回想起阅读的乐趣。
Born and bred in Plymouth, he'd got into a fight while drunk in 2013, and been sentenced to two years in Dartmoor for grievous bodily harm.
Lewis是土生土长的普利茅斯人。2013年，他因醉酒斗殴，造成严重人身伤害被判在Dartmoor监狱服役两年。
It was not out of character for him at the time, he admits - from an early age he had struggled to deal with his aggression.
他承认，做出这样的事完全是性格所致——从很小的时候起，他就一直在努力克制自己的暴脾气。
But from the moment he was sent to a remand centre, he realised just how tough his new environment would be.
但从他被送去拘留所的那一刻起，他意识到他的新环境将是多么艰难。
Fights broke out the first time prisoners were let out into the yard, he says, and "someone was slashed".
他说，囚犯们第一次在院子里放风就发生了打斗，“有人被砍了”。
Prisoners made knives by combining toothbrushes with razors and you might be slashed for something as petty as an argument over a cigarette paper.
囚犯们把牙刷和剃刀捆在一起制成刀具，可能会因为一些小事而发生冲突而被割伤，比如因为一张卷烟纸发生的争吵。
"It was like masculinity to the maximum and so you were always on edge," he says.
他说：“他们像是男子气高涨到了顶峰，所以你每时每刻都得提心吊胆。”
Violent criminals and their friends were constantly trying to figure out if someone had a weakness to exploit, either physical or mental.
暴力的犯人们合伙，不断找寻着他人身上可以利用的弱点，无论是身体上的还是精神上的。
Lewis managed to avoid trouble, but it was stressful.
Lewis设法避免了麻烦，但这让他很有压力。
"You had to stand your ground and you were always trying to figure out how to distance yourself from those sorts of things."
“你得坚持自己的立场，你总是想办法让自己远离这些事情。”
So while going to prison is "never lucky", he says, he considers himself fortunate to have been signed up for a programme called Storybook Dads.
他说，虽然进监狱“从来不是一件幸运的事”，但他认为自己很幸运能被选进了一个名为“故事书爸爸”(Storybook Dads)的项目。
This gives prisoners with young children a chance to spend time in a studio recording bedtime stories, which are then sent to their families at home on CD or DVD.
该项目让有年幼孩子的囚犯们在录音室里录制睡前故事，然后将故事以CD或DVD的形式寄给家人。
"As soon as you walked in through the doors, it was just complete relaxation, you felt safe," remembers Lewis.
“一走进门，你就完全放松了，你感到很安全，”Lewis回忆道。
For his own family he was producing one per week. He would read stories like the Gruffalo series by Julia Donaldson. He would also sometimes read Marvel comics from the prison library, holding up the images in front of the video camera.
他每周为自己的孩子录制一篇故事。他会读Julia Donaldson的《咕噜牛》(Gruffalo)系列小说。他有时也会从监狱图书馆借漫威漫画，然后在镜头前一边读一边展示画面。
He even drew his own comics, and sent these to his children.
他甚至创作了自己的漫画，寄给孩子们。
遥远的陪伴
"My missus was having a bit of time settling them at night," says Lewis，"but she could play his recorded stories and this would help to soothe them. "
Lewis说道，“每天晚上我太太会花点时间安顿孩子们，不过后来，她可以给孩子们播放我读的故事来安抚他们。”
They told him that after listening to his voice "it felt like I was in the room with them when they closed their eyes."
孩子们告诉他，听到爸爸的声音后，闭上眼睛的时候会感觉到爸爸其实是跟他们在一起的。
He was also pleased to hear that his sons would sometimes sit down together to listen to the stories, when they were missing their father.
听到儿子们在想念爸爸的时候会坐在一起听爸爸讲故事，他很高兴。
Learning about the impact of his stories at home spurred Lewis on to do more. And not only did the stories delight his children - they did something for the story-teller too.
了解到自己讲的故事在家里对孩子们的影响，Lewis有动力去做更多。读故事不仅让孩子们高兴，也给参加“故事书爸爸”的犯人们带来改变。
狱中的慰藉
"It's hard to explain the feelings you get in prison," says Lewis.
Lewis说：“很难用言语来描述我在监狱里的感受”。
"You don't ever get a cuddle off anyone, you don't even get a shake of the hands, you miss that love from your kids in their eyes, you start to feel quite cold every day. "If you have a visit and someone cuddles you, it's the warmest feeling you can ever imagine, it's like an electric blanket around you."
“在这里你永远不会得到任何一个人的拥抱，甚至是一次握手，你思念着孩子们眼中流露出的爱，你开始觉得在这里的每一天都很孤独。如果有人来探望你并且给予你一个拥抱，这就是你可以想象到的最温暖的事情了，温暖到就像是被电热毯裹住一样。”
Reading stories for his children brought some of that warmth back into his life.
给他的孩子们讲故事，使得他的生活重新变得温暖有爱。
"It's massively important for someone who wants to be rehabilitated," Lewis says.
“这对于想要改过自新的人来说是很重要的。”Lewis说道。
Sharon Berry, the founder of Storybook Dads, soon noticed inmates' need for these warm feelings when she started visiting prisons.
“故事书爸爸”项目创始人Sharon Berry，在探访囚犯们的时候注意到，犯人们是需要温暖的。
She had studied radio production as a mature student and dreamed of writing radio plays. As she worked towards that ambition, she took some work volunteering one day per week at Channing Wood prison, helping it to set up a radio station. She was surprised by what male prisoners would talk to her about when given the chance.
她曾作为一名成人学生学习广播制作，梦想着成为广播剧作家。在她朝着这一目标努力时，她每周都会去Channing Wood监狱做一天义工，帮助他们建一个广播站。那些男性犯人参加广播站活动时对她说的话让她感到意外。
They opened up about the pain of missing their children, the guilt of missing milestones like birthdays, toddlers' first steps or first days at school.
他们向她倾诉思念孩子的痛苦，以及错过那些重要时刻的愧疚——生日，第一次学会走路，第一次上学……
She saw phone calls home that ended in tears as prisoners found out about the family life that was passing them by.
Sharon总能看到囚犯们跟家中通完电话后泪流满面的样子，因为他们终于明白了他们所错过的家庭生活。
初衷
This was how the idea of Storybook Dads came to her: it would be a way for prisoners to maintain family ties, while gaining media production skills that might help them rebuild their lives once outside prison, reducing the risk that they would offend again.
这是她建立“故事书爸爸”（Storybook Dads）的初衷：它将是囚犯们维持家庭关系的一种方式，所学到的媒体制作技能也可以帮助他们在刑满释放后重建新生活，降低他们重蹈覆辙的可能。
She set up her charity in 2003 in Dartmoor prison. The first room they were allocated as a recording studio was an empty prison cell.
2003年她在Dartmoor监狱建立了一家慈善机构。当时分配给他们用作录音室的是监狱里的一间空牢房。
Sixteen years later, about 100 prisons work with the charity, generating between 5,000 and 6,000 stories a year. (The charity also works with some female prisons, under the name Storybook Mums.)
16年之后，大约有100个监狱与该慈善机构合作，每年产生5000-6000个故事。（该慈善机构也与女性监狱合作，活动名叫“故事书妈妈”）
Behind their tough facades, many prisoners struggled to make their recordings, Sharon noticed.
Sharon注意到，在许多犯人强硬的外表下，录制故事对他们来说很艰难。
"It's a macho environment on the wing, you can't show any weakness. By contrast, our studio space is nurturing and supportive - they get in touch with that dad side of themselves. Shedding that macho image for a brief period of time made them feel vulnerable."
“这是一个大男子主义弥漫的环境，你不能表现出任何弱点。相比之下，我们的工作室空间正在培养和支持他们找回自己作为父亲的一面。暂时脱下硬汉外衣的时候，他们也会变得脆弱。”
一些小困难
She saw many prisoners break down as they tried to record short personal messages to introduce their stories.
她曾目睹许多犯人在录制故事介绍的时候崩溃不已。
But there was something else the prisoners seemed to struggle with.
当然，也有其他让犯人们觉得棘手的事情。
Some prisoners would be sweating by the time they finished reading Hansel and Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood, and Sharon thinks she knows why.
有些犯人在读完《韩赛尔与格蕾特》或者《小红帽》后会紧张得冒汗，Sharon觉得她知道他们的心结。
"It's daunting for these young men," she says. "Very often they weren't read to as children themselves, so this was new to them. They come in to the little studio to read Goldilocks and they're embarrassed, they don't know how to do it, and a big part of it is helping them to relax."
“对于这些年轻人来说，这确实是让人畏惧的任务，”她说，“他们很可能在小时候就没有听过这些故事，所以对于他们来说，这些故事非常陌生。让他们走进这间小小的录音室去读《金发姑娘》，他们会觉得尴尬而且不知所措，朗读的一个重要作用就是帮助他们放松下来。”
Lewis, who learned to edit the recordings made by other prisoners as well as recording his own, agrees that some prisoners struggle with the act of reading. Some may also have had very little contact with their children, he adds.
Lewis曾学着剪辑他自己和其他犯人录制的音频。他也认为朗读对于有些犯人来说是很费劲的事情。他还补充说，有些犯人极少与他们的子女有接触。
The only time he personally felt stressed came when he was filming DVDs, using children's puppets as props.
唯一一次他觉得很紧张，是他在用孩子们玩的木偶当道具录制DVD的时候。
"You had the other prisoners watching you perform the story. You see, prison pulls you back to that old mentality from school. 'Will these people take the mickey out of me afterwards?' Men can be immature."
“其他犯人会看着你表演故事。你看，监狱生活让你重新找回上学时的心态。‘这些人之后会不会取笑我？’毕竟男人们可能不够成熟。”
However, many prisoners find that the positive impact of their stories gives them the confidence to do more, Sharon says.
不过，Sharon说，许多犯人发现读故事对他们产生了积极的影响，这使得他们有信心去做更多的事情。
Prisoners would hear that their children were so proud of the stories that they took the recordings to school to show their friends. They couldn't wait for the sequel.
犯人们得知，他们的孩子们因为爸爸读的故事而感到骄傲——他们将录音带去学校给他们的朋友们听，甚至等不及要听下一集。
"It showed the children that they are loved and not abandoned," says Sharon.
Sharon表示：“这些故事让孩子们知道父亲对他们的爱，他们没有被遗弃。”
新的生活
More than five years after leaving prison, Lewis has not re-offended.
出狱5年多，Lewis至今没有再犯。
He has returned to his job as a fencer and branched out into property care services. Occasional periods of work with Storybook Dads have helped him through periods when work has been scarce.
他重拾了篱笆匠的工作，还扩展了业务，做起了物业服务。当没有活做的时候，是“故事书爸爸”的活动帮他度过难关。
He has given up drinking and welcomed a third son into the world last year.
现在他已经戒了酒，去年又迎来了第三个儿子。
He also took up boxing at an amateur gym to channel his aggression, though problems with his hip have pushed him into coaching instead.
他还开始在业余健身房练拳击来疏导他的暴力倾向，尽管臀伤让他不得不做起了教练。
Reading with his children remains one of his favourite activities.
然而和孩子们一起读书一直是他最爱的活动。
With his elder son he is working his way through the Harry Potter collection. They haven't reached the sections about the prison of Azkaban yet, he says. But when they do, he plans to use it as a "shock tactic", a way to start conversations that will steer his son away from the life he was tempted to go down.
他正在和大儿子一起读《哈利波特》系列。他说，他们还没读到阿兹卡班监狱的相关章节，不过，他打算读到这段的时候，用这些内容警醒孩子，让他不要像自己一样受到不良诱惑而误入歧途。
"I will tell him the truth about prison, how horrible it is," says Lewis.
“我会告诉他监狱的真实情况是多么恐怖。” Lewis说。
And he will also tell him how it was the joy of reading that helped him to re-write the plot of his life.
当然，他也会告诉儿子，正是阅读之乐帮助他重新书写了人生篇章。
来源 | BBC
编译 | 刘与晨 阿孜姑 尹天翼
排版 | 尹天翼
指导老师 | 刘佳